All Those Deleted Drafts. Let’s Discuss.

Posted March 10, 2020 by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction in Let's Discuss / 36 Comments

Bloggers, do you ever write down a post idea as a draft? Do you ever actually go back and write a post to go with that fabulous idea you had or does it sit in your drafts folder … forever.

Not long ago, I was looking for a little inspiration for a post, and it suddenly occurred to me that I might have some ideas squirreled away as drafts. From time to time I’ll have a great idea for a post, but no time to write it. So, I’ll write down a title and save it as a draft. Sometimes I’ll even write a bit more than a title.

Problem is, I almost never remember to go back and look at those drafts. And by the time I do, the flash of inspiration I had when I wrote that idea down has fizzled away, and I’m just no longer interested. (I’m very fickle.)

Or sometimes the post idea just doesn’t even make sense anymore. Case in point, one of the draft titles I found the other day was: “Do You Read Books From an Alternate POV?
Now, that post idea seemed apropos when I wrote it—in 2015!!! Back then, there was a big trend where authors would write a book and then rewrite the same story from another character’s POV (for the record, I wasn’t a fan and could rarely bring myself to read them because I’d get bored). But, now five years later, that post idea is pretty much defunct because that was a quickly passing trend. (I guess I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t interested. Or are there still authors out there that do this? Let me know if I’m wrong!) That’s a draft that’s going in the trash.

I know I’ve deleted others over the years as well. (Why I saved that one for so long, I have no idea—maybe I thought the trend was sure to come back one day?) My poor little drafts … abandoned.

Luckily, I did still have some interesting stuff in there. I found several tags that I’d saved for myself to do “later”—maybe someday I’ll get to them. And I pretty much always have a draft of a Fun with Spam post going (which I update whenever I run across funny spam).

But then there was this gem of a post idea:Book-Related Anxiety. It’s a Thing (and I Have It).” Imagine my surprise when I saw that I had already written at least half a post! And it gelled perfectly with some of my current writing anxieties, so I decided to flesh it out and post it. Inspiration achieved!!

Guess those drafts can be useful after all!

Do you ever save post ideas as drafts? Do you come back to them or do they end up in the trash? I wanna know!

 


This post has been linked up to the 2020 Book Blog Discussion Challenge!

 

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36 responses to “All Those Deleted Drafts. Let’s Discuss.

  1. Yep, I do this! Right now my only drafts are two unfinished reviews from last year. I should probably delete them because I’m not going to finish them. I’ve mostly given up on writing reviews because they take forever, and I can’t figure out how to make people click on them.

  2. In case you had ANY doubt left that our great minds do indeed think alike… https://itstartsatmidnight.com/2017/02/discussions-from-the-trash/ ?

    To answer your question, I’ll put it this way: I have 23 drafts. Three are actual upcoming posts (my March recap, The Deep blog tour, and a Reviews in a Minute that needed to be up like, yesterday). About 10 are The 100 posts that were posted on other people’s blogs that I want to have on my own so they make sense. And then 10 are… nonsense. Old tags, discussions that make no sense, an end of year recap from 2019 that I’m pretty sure the ship has sailed on… sooo yeah my drafts are all bound to be deleted eventually ?

    Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight recently posted: The June Boys by Court Stevens: Review & Giveaway!
  3. I don’t save them as drafts, though I probably should start doing that. However, I have a Google Doc with reviews, posts, links to tags I want to do, and just general ideas. So I guess it’s sort of the same thing, except having it as a draft might make them easier to finish and post. LOL

    -Lauren

  4. I have yet to draft many unused posts, but I do jot down ideas, when inspiration strikes. I am more a reader, than a writer. I mean, I love having an outlet to share my thoughts, but writing is actually hard for me, so maybe that’s why I don’t have tons of posts waiting to be buffed and readied for publication. That’s great, that you found some good half-written posts just waiting to see the light of day

  5. Oooh! I do this all the time! I have an email draft where I add post titles whenever inspiration hits. Of course, I rarely use these prompts or delete them if I no longer think they’re doable, so I’m not sure what purpose that list serves. I also sometimes start drafts of posts on the Google Doc that Chana and I use, and there are so many there with a line or a paragraph that I wrote months ago, but they remain unfinished. Since I’m just as much as a mood-writer as I am a mood-reader, I think I keep waiting for the time to be right to finish these posts. Hopefully inspiration will strike soon, and I’ll finally finish up these ideas I came up with long ago!

    Malka @ Paper Procrastinators recently posted: February Reading Wrap Up
  6. I only have a few drafts, but I’m so going to start saving my ideas as drafts. That’s so smart! I recently needed a quick post because we’re knee-deep into renovations and I haven’t had time to do much blogging, so I checked my drafts and found an almost complete post I’d made last year. That was a nice surprise! 🙂

    Dedra @ A Book Wanderer recently posted: What’s Your YA Superhero Identity?
  7. I actually prewrite a lot of my posts, or at least pre-photo them, so I have the photographs and the ideas but haven’t written the actual text. For all posts, I usually the content in the end! The only exception is discussion posts. I always feel disappointed in my discussion posts and end up deleting them? Which is why my blog has a huge lack of discussions :/ I have some on my channel, but I’m not sure. Often I find them not intellectual or useful enough for anyone so I don’t know :/ They’re gone ahaha.

  8. I make liberal use of draft posts. I draft placeholders for memes I want to take part in, I create placeholders for reviews, tours, blitzes etc (and by entering a scheduled date, I know when they need written by). I also use them for “other” post ideas such as discussions or something completely off the bookish topic. Some of these “other” drafts never see the light of day but the placeholder post drafts almost always do. 🙂

    Nicci @ Sunny Buzzy Books recently posted: Weekly Update #103
  9. I definitely have quite a few old drafts that I’ve never finished lying around! I often have the same problem though that a lot of them are out of date in terms of being about old trends and things but some of them I could probably use. I’ll have to go back over them! 🙂

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